BMW 5-Series Tires and Wheels

Comments

I have CPO 2006 550 with sport package for 4 years, and so far replaced 2 rim and 4 tires. The total cost was about $3000. Luckily, I bought tire insurance, but I dislike the situation at all. The tires are 245/70/18R. Basically the design of rim and tire can not handle the normal road condition. They may be good on a glass surface. I decide to cut my loss and sell the damn thing and forget about it in my life.

A few questions: - - You have a 2010 what? - - Are you inquiring whether you can buy any new car with GFTs? Yes. Many companies sell their cars with GFTs. - - Are you wondering if you can buy a new BMW with GFTs? Yes, and no. As far as I know, all standard model BMWs are now equipped with RFTs while all M-Series BMWs are equipped with GFTs.

The thing is, if you don't want a 535xi with RFTs, simply buy the car and change the tires to GFTs; problem solved.

2010 535xi. I'm wondering if I can buy 2011 without rft. In prior years the rft tire has been an option. If I have to spend more $ after purchase to move to standard tires I just want to know rather than be surprised.

Has there been precedent with dealer swapping the tires as part of the original purchase?

Finally, are there any redeeming qualities to having rft? I read only horror stories

At least on my BMW, there is NO place to store a spare tire (plus, you'd have to buy the jack and wrench, as it doesn't come with them). If you want one cluttering up most of the trunk area, and no easy way to hold it down, go for it. If you figure you'll just call for service...good luck - you may just be out of range on the cellphone and may have to wait hours. The redeeming feature of a RFT is you can safely drive on them and get to a place where you (hopefully) can replace it or repair it. So, without one, your choices are: run without a spare at all, carry around a spare (you'd have to buy a new wheel, or maybe one of the compact spares), or install something like 'Slime' in the tires and hope that would prevent a flat (and doesn't trash the pressure sensors). Expect a tire servicing dealer to charge you extra for getting all that slime on his equipment when you do need to replace the tire.

If it did trash the TPS, and I'm not saying it would (but it could), you'd then have to listen to the car chime at you all the time as I don't think there is a way to turn off that warning, not counting the displayed warning as well. It might even play nanny if it detects you driving too fast for having a flat as well. All that is supposition. If you go that route, let us know your feelings, especially if you end up with a flat. I typically go years without one, then get a couple. On one day, I had two tires with nails/screws in them, now that was a major pain. Luckily, the leak was slow enough, I could pump them up and leap-frog my way to a repair shop, but that assumes you carry a compressor.

I have a year old 550GT with the Sport package (20" wheels and RFT's). Just replaced both rear tires and wheels. Wheels were cracked and tires slashed from inside. These tires were replaced 6 months previous for same thing. BMW does nothing and blames me for driving through pot holes. For 32 years I have been driving high end MB and BMW. Never experienced this problem before. My last car was MB 550S with AMG package. This is not a safe vehicle and stay away. BMW refuses to deal with my problem and will not take responsibility. There is a design and manufacture flaw but they hide from the problem. Does someone need to be killed for them to wake up?

1) It is highly unlikely that any of your previous cars have ever had 20" wheels with such short sidewalls.

2) When you say "BMW does nothing but blame me..." are you referring to your dealer (a franchisee, and not BMW proper), or are you saying someone from Woodcliff Lake, NJ?

3) There is no design or manufacturing flaw, low profile tires such as you're running will, by definition, become easily damaged at the slightest provocation; regardless of tire brand, wheel manufacturer, or vehicle manufacturer.

4) Not only did you opt to "upgrade" the size of the wheels on your car when you bought it, you "upgraded" them two full sizes. The standard 18" wheel setup which comes on the GT has tires with over 4.8" of sidewall, and even the 19" setup of the standard sport package has a fairly reasonable 4.3"; which is typically enough to absorb pot-hole hits and such encountered in normal day to day driving. Instead of opting for either of the above, you went for a setup which only offers 3.8" of sidewall give.

5) All of BMWs web sites and Sales and Marketing literature include disclaimers regarding tire and wheel damage caused by opting for large diameter wheels and low profile tires.

So, BMW clearly states tire and wheel damage can result from running the low profile setup you have, and you still bought it anyway; how is it BMWs responsibility? Some folks feel they need that much bling, but for my part, I have no intention of ever owning a car with wheels with less than 4" of rubber protecting them from the road (and 4.3" would be even better).

I take it by your continued silence you've figured out that BMW isn't really to blame for your wheel and tire issues.

Suggestion; have your dealership put a 19" wheel and tires setup from the standard 550i GT Sport Package on your car. Not only should both the ride and handling of your car improve (not that you need the handling this car is capable of on regular roads), but your wheels and tires will be far more capable of absorbing the impacts from the things you seem to be driving over without sustaining damage.

On the contrary, I still blame BMW. There is clearly a design flaw in the suspension. After my 9th bent wheel and my 6th tire replacement, I traded the car in for a new 2012 Audi A6. I now have a car that rides like a sport sedan should ride and I no longer must worry about what roads I travel down, will I need to have my car towed to the dealer again, downtime and the most important the aggravation.

Let's face it... For some, it will always be the manufacturer's fault. And, to an extent, I can accept that reasoning. Even if I find a disclaimer that "legally" exonerates the carmaker (as BMW includes in it's manual), does that really go far enough in informing the potential buyer about probable damage to oversize wheels?

Still, in the end, no one is forcing the buyer to take the vehicle... So it's up to the buyer to understand what he is purchasing. Couple that with the fact that only a small percentage of owners ever actually read the owner's manual ( most can be read "on-line" before the purchase has been made) and you get an overall "uninformed" car owner. In fact, most car buyers probably spend more time researching the purchase of a $800 wide-screen TV than the car they buy...

If I had to guess, I would bet the implications of larger wheels/smaller tire sidewalls NEVER crossed his mind. He probably just liked the way the vehicle looked.

I think some are possibly missing the point here and suggesting the problem must definitely be with the driver(s) and not with the mfr wheels themselves. In some cases it may be the driver hitting a huge hole or major obstacle in the road that would put it outside of the design specs for absorbing the impact. But in others (most?), it sounds like there ARE problems with certain mfr alloy wheels 18" and wider even under normal road conditions (minor potholes, ...). I only came to this thread because two of my rims on my 530i developed issues (one cracked, the other bent) and I was curious if this was common or not to my vehicle. I have never hit anything that would have suggested my wheels would crack or bend in my 530i. In fact, I have never had a failed wheel before in 30+ years of driving including two previous BMWs, Acura, Cadillac, ..., so it did seem at least to me to be a legitimate gripe after reading about others having similar problems. I have to admit, I will definitely be wary of replacing my 530i with another BMW (or from any other mfr) that seems to have a higher than normal degree of wheel failure. It is an expensive fix obviously!

I haven't looked at where the wheels BMW uses are made, but that may be an issue as more and more manufacturing moves to the far east. There's only so much you can do in quality control, it takes a conscientious management of each supplier to keep it high. I do know if you look on the aftermarket choices, most are made there. But, as manufacturers move to make lower profile monster tires available based on demand, the people that buy them must take responsibility for the fact that they have nowhere near the same safety margin when hitting anything other than a smooth road before they can be damaged.

Wider wheels and tires are not the issue as "wider" doesn't necessarily translate to short sidewalls. That said, regardless of how wide the tire is, as the sidewall height decreases to a point less than about 4.25", the tire and wheel will become increasingly prone to damage with relatively minor provocation; it matters not the maker of the width or maker of the tire, the maker of the wheel, or the maker of the car.

Case in point, the 18" wheels which come standard on the previously discussed 550i GT are wrapped with tires endowed with over 4.8" of sidewall height; enough "give" so that one could drive those tires through some of the worst Manhattan has to offer and still not incur any damage.

The next step up is the 550i Sport Package which comes with 19" wheels and tires with a minimal (but still ample) 4.3" of sidewall height. While this setup will be somewhat more susceptible to damage compared to the 18" setup, they'll still survive most of what the big bad world of roads out there can throw at you.

In the Sublime to the Ridiculous department, those whom opt for the 20" Max-Bling setup which sports tires with a paltry 3.8" of sidewall height, had better be sure that the roads they drive on were just black-topped yesterday, because if the roads aren&#146;t nearly glass smooth, they're going to be finding themselves buying new wheels and tires to replace the ones which were damaged when they ran over something as minor as a tar-strip. :P

Hello, Dale and All: Don't know if you'll remember me from the Luxury Lounge and other forums, but a quick question. Not having yet read through this forum, but we just bought a new '11 535xi, with the Radial Spoke (Style 237) 18 x 8.0 light alloy wheels, 245/45 run-flat1 all-season tires (base setup). Thinks I got a decent deal...

Everyone: Offered the 5 year BMW Tire Protection package for $1267, my initial reaction is thanks, but no (self insure). Your thoughts? Have a couple of days to think about it, new to run flats and have read here and there that the wheels seem to be (relatively) easily damaged. I'm a bit less worried about the tires as the wheels.

Thanks for the thoughts. Yeah, I've been more of a lurker than a poster the last couple of years, life kinda got in the way...

Spoke to my local shop, they suggested the warranty as they claim to see a lot of BMW, Audi and Saab wheel issues. I've never bought any kind of extended warranty, always self-insured, but this is a bit of a new ball game, shop said price sounded good for five years. We'll see, I think the lovely wife would feel warmer and fuzzier with the warranty.

Hey, we continue to support the economy, two new cars in three months! What have I done??? :confuse:

I've never been really impressed with Goodyear tires, but that being said, there are a lot of people on the forums that complain about sidewall bubbles (supposedly from doing things like hitting curbs, etc.) with the stock tires. The nature of a run-flat is that it tends to protect the rim of the wheel better than 'normal' tires, since it must prevent the tire from peeling off the rim when it loses pressure. While it somewhat depends on your deductable, a broken rim normally is covered by your existing collision insurance, and that may cover a bit of the cost of any eventual replacment. Then, the wear rating on the tires isn't all that great, so they'll need to be replaced regularly anyway. This is more because BMW specs a higher performance tire than the fact they are run-flats. For equivalent sizes, it seems that a runflat tire costs in the order of $100 more than the conventional counterpart. The price you pay for not lugging a spare around and the safety of choosing where you stop if you do get a flat.

Certainly I didn't mean to suggest all wheel damage is the driver's fault, but in my experience I would say when someone complains of wheel damage multiple times in short order, the driver is the most obvious cause.

Even though one may have driven 50 years without a single incident, most/all of those years were probably on higher profile, non RFT tires.

Is like me blaming BMW for poor design if I happen to hit a speed bump too fast and damage the front fascia on my Z4 coupe.

Sidewalls on RFTs are much more rigid and less forgiving when driven through potholes. It's something folks need to consider when buying large rims with low profile tires.

Roads of Boston and New England. Not feeling so lucky! Tires, I believe, come with a one year warranty, but I do worry about the wheels. For the first time in my life, from the research I've done the last couple of days, I think we may go for it...

I have 530xit station wagon sport package. Have replaced the run flat tires with 18"rim completly with a 17" rim 225/45/R17 tire. I have no issue with the indication since we moved all sensers from RFT rim to the new off the shave rim. I get perfect ride with the all season tires and my hwy milage has gone up by 3 miles. I am going to use the RFT 18 inch rim with 245/45/R18 tires to replace all my RFT for the winter on 328XI which my wife drives locally. Parts in the BMW told me I could use 18" rim on the 328xi.

I cannot believe that I am seeing the same "blame the driver" crap on this thread that you get from BMW. I have been driving reasonably high-performance cars on 45 profile tires for ten years now. Mostly turbocharged Subies, Infiniti, VW CC and Audi's. Prior to that, mostly BMW's. I have carefully avoided the "sport" upgrades with 40 or lower profile tires.

Went back to BMW this past year when we bought a 2011 535xi. Again, stayed with 18 inch wheels and the 45 series tires. This car has a SERIOUS problem! One pothole on I 40 in New Mexico bent the rim. The car immediately began vibrating badly. We were worried that we were going to be stranded hundreds of miles from any dealer. No damage we could see at night with a flashlight, so we limped 250 miles home.

The pothole is one that would barely have bothered any of the cars we have driven.

There was NO driver error here. I have driven over 1.5 million miles on three continents and never had a car suffer anything like this kind of damage from this sort of impact.

$650 and the dealer said that I was lucky that the impact did not take out the tire as well. They usually see tire sidewall bubbles when someone takes out a BMW rim.

When we bought the car, we had planned to replace the run flats with non-run flat Conti Extreme Contact DWS tires (and the Conti inflation kit) this coming fall. Now, we are debating whether we dare keep this car. It spends much of its time on trips in the middle of nowhere.

I know that replacing the RFTs with standard all-seasons will provide more cushioning for the wheel. With earlier BMW's this extra cushioning might be sufficient to have saved the rim in our pothole impact. But, I am far less confident that it will be sufficient on our car. The new 5 series seems to have a particularly soft front suspension. After hearing other reports of 2011 535's crashing over potholes, I took a new, non AWD, 535i out on a test drive this past week and deliberately drove it over a known pothole on a nearby surface street. The Bimmer completely bottomed its suspension with a loud jarring crash. In five other cars -- all with 45 profile tires -- I drove over the same pothole at the same speed with very little fuss.

Stiff run flat tires, soft wheels, a suspension that crashes . . . Not sure how to fix all of these. We are now worried that even if we replace the RFTs with more flexible non-RFTs, this car may still be dangerously susceptible to impact damage.

One possibility would be to replace the RFT's, buy the Conti kit AND devote a sizable amount of trunk real-estate to a spare tire and jack.

Or, we could take the more drastic step of dumping a beautiful new 535xi for an Audi A6.